Reflections by Michael Roberts, Colombo Telegraph, Sept. 17, 2016 DeSilva-Ranasinghe’s article – how-sri-lanka-won-the-unwinnable-war Asia Pacific Defence Reporter Sept 2009 This article – https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sergei-de-silva-ranasinghes-review-of-eelam-war-iv-reflections/ ADDENDUM, 14 September 2009 In analyzing historical issues over the years, I came to the conclusion that a multiplicity of factors generates the events that are understood to be major transformations – so… Read more »
Posts Categorized: History
Nine Decisions that Helped Lanka Beat LTTE
by V K Shashikumar, Indian Defence Review, October 2009 Not available in 2019 on Indian Defence Review website, but copied at http://www.sify.com/news/nine-decisions-that-helped-lanka-beat-ltte-imagegallery-0-international-kexv2Lbdede.html , accessed June 19, 2019 What we don’t see Will a good number of soldiers, tanks and artillery ensure victory in a war? These are outward aspects of a war which alone are… Read more »
Lessons from the War in Sri Lanka
by VK Sashikumar, Indian Defence Review – July – Sept 2009 – Vol 24(3) Lessons from Sri Lanka’s War – Indian Defence Review 2014 version, PDF http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/lessons-from-the-war-in-sri-lanka/0/ “The news about the killing of Prabhakaran sparked mass celebrations around the country, and people poured into the streets of Colombo, dancing and singing. Looking back at the… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 22
‘Only God Can Save the Tamils’ By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 21 “Aandavan than aeni Tamilarai Kappatra Mudyum” – Only god can save the Tamils – were the prophetic words of S J V Chelvanayakam, the leader of the Thamil Arasu Kadchi. Chelvanayakam sensed the gathering storms in the context of… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 21
A further lack of perspicuity By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 20 Dudley Senanyake was sworn in as the prime minister for the fourth time on March 25, 1965. A few weeks after resuming office, he was again afflicted with his peculiar stomach ailment. The pain affected him to the point… Read more »
Sri Lanka, MSF Amidst All-Out War
by Fabrice Weissman, Academia.edu, accessed June 2019 In Claire Magone et al. (ed.), Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed. The MSF Experience, London, Hurst & Co, 2011. Sri_Lanka_MSF_Amid_All-Out_War 2011 On 18 May 2009, the Sri Lankan government’s crushing victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) put an end to twenty-six years of civil war. Described by… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 20
Tamil leadership lacks perspicuity By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore, December 22, 2001 Chapter 1 Chapter 19 This is a story of another agreement. This time between S J V Chelvanayakam, the leader of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi and Dudley Senanayake, the leader of the United National Party. In short, another agreement entered… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 19
Anguish and pain By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore, December 15, 2001 Chapter 1 Chapter 18 The government led by Srimavo Bandaranaike, issued a Treasury circular No 560 of December 1961, which stated that government servants appointed since 1956, should obtain minimum proficiency in the official language – Sinhala, to retain their posts, as… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 18
Srimavo – Weeping arrogance By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 17 The defeat in the parliamentary elections of March 1960, clearly indicated that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party needed a popular leader, who could put the party back in the saddle. Accordingly, the SLFP stalwarts, on May 24, 1960, elected Sirimavo… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 17
Assassination of Bandaranaike by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 16 Bandaranaike, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias (1899-1959), the prime minister of Ceylon (1956-59), whose election marked a significant change socially and ethnically in the political history of modern Ceylon, was born on January 8. His father was the only son of Gate… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 16
‘Honorable wounds of war’ by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Tribune,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 15 “If Sinhalese lips will not speak the Sinhalese language, who else is there to speak? How is a nation to be lifted out of error, reformed and advance into plains of higher knowledge, except by its own language?” These were… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 15
Turbulence in any language By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 14 When the Western colonial powers, the Portuguese, Dutch and British, captured the littoral regions of Ceylon, they administered the North and East, the traditional habitat of the Tamils, as a single, whole and distinct unit, keeping intact the homogeneity and… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 14
Post-colonial realignment of political forces By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 13 The Minister of Trade and Commerce, C. Suntheralingham, the independent Member of Parliament representing Vavuniya and the long time associate of D.S. Senanayake, walked out of the Parliament chamber when a division was called on the second reading of… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 13
A nightmarish British legacy By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 12 In Britain, according to Brooke Bond Tea survey, people drink nearly 187 million cups of tea per day. It is understood that they normally drink the best – Ceylon Tea. A recent survey disclosed that, drinking at least one cup… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 12
Tryst with independence by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 11 The first-ever parliamentary general election in Ceylon was held in 1947, under the territorial representative system, but electioneering was conducted, out and out, on a communal basis. However, at the election propaganda meetings, D S Senanayake declared that he wishes to… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 11
On the threshold of freedom By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore, October 20, 2001 Chapter 1 Chapter 10 The Soulbury commissioners, after completion of their mission in Ceylon, left for London on a Royal Air Force flight on April 7, 1945. Subsequently, the Secretary of State for Colonies announced the rejection of the Free… Read more »
Land Grab & Colonization
by M.K. Eelaventhan, date & source unknown ‘The first prime minister of Sri Lanka, D.S. Senanayake, when inaugurating the Padaviya scheme of colonization openly and with no qualms stated the objective of his government as follows: “Today you are brought here and given a plot of land. You are men and women who will carry… Read more »
There is a Thread Running Through Sri Lanka’s Cycles of Violence
Sri Lanka’s minorities – including its Christians and Muslims – have paid a high price for the state’s failure to protect them by Farah Mihlar, The Guardian, UK, April 23, 2019, modified April 24, 2019 As mass burials for some of the Christian worshippers killed in the Easter Sunday bombings take place today, claims that the… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 10
Lord Soulbury and his soulless report by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 9 On August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber named Enola Gay, piloted by Paul W Tibbets, dropped the “Little Boy” – a uranium atom bomb, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where more than 140,000 civilians died. Three… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 9
British Concordance and concoctions By K.T.Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore, September 29, 2001 Chapter 1 Chapter 8 It became apparent that the British government had adopted a different agenda and new designs regarding the future of Ceylon to that which some people in the country desired. State Council member D S Senanayake was one of these,… Read more »